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Macbook Pro Disk Utility Cannot Repair Disk.

Hello there! My Macbook Pro is not starting up, and apparently the problem is caused by the hard drive. I have been having a strange problem first - no matter how much space i freed on the Mac's harddrive the system info kept saying i have somewhere around 30 gigabytes left. I decided to restart, and when i did so the computer no longer started up. I attempted to use safe mode, using Command-shift-v to see the progress. The startup resulted in saying it cannot completely verify the disk. Attmpted to repair disk with Disk Utility while using the (command-r) mode, and all it tells me is to backup as many of my files and reformat the disk. Is there any other way? Other than just erasing all the data from the drive?

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Apr 10, 2013 7:56 PM

19 replies

Csound1

Level 9

60,033 points

Jul 14, 2015 3:57 PM in response to A_Person_Who_Needs_Help

A_Person_Who_Needs_Help wrote:

So the only way is to purchase a special piece of software not even knowing if it would work? If it's incompatable I don't have any other Mac OR even a firewire. Yeah, guess I'm screwed...Unless there is any other possible Terminal command or any other possible way that is not as risky?

The easy way is to restore your backup (unless this is a mechanical issue)

Csound1

Level 9

60,033 points

Jul 14, 2015 4:00 PM in response to lasublime

lasublime wrote:

THanks for a detailed response but, there are things I just don't understand. On the left panel of disk utility there are listed two hard drives, one nestled under the other - apple HDD TOSHIBA and underneath Macintosh HD.

Nope, that is one hard drive (Toshiba) with one non functional partition on it (Macintosh HD), please don't confuse the thread.

May 31, 2016 8:21 PM in response to A_Person_Who_Needs_Help

wait how?!?! i can't use my macbook for any other uses except the different ways to boot up a mac (recovery, os x utilities, etc) i have a malfunctioning disk that needs repair.

Jan 8, 2017 12:00 PM in response to A_Person_Who_Needs_Help

Hey. How did you copy your files if you can only access the recovery (disk utility) mode?

Macbook Pro Disk Utility Cannot Repair Disk.